The History Yoga

Published in

Careguru

3 min readJul 4, 2017

Knowledge about Yoga is still in progress as discoveries made are not justifiable to its vast concept. Studies and secrets about Yoga were put forth by our ancestors on palm leaves. It was the tendency of these palm leaves to perish within a period of time, but some secrets are still not known. Although it is said that yoga is a 5,000 years old practice, some researchers believe that it is as old as 10,000 years.

Turns out that yoga being vast and ancient has a lot more hidden branches. This extensive knowledge is shared by oral means or by enacting. However, an expert still doesn’t know all of it.

The rapid and gradual discovery about yoga is broadly classified into four distinguishable periods:

Pre — classical age:

A long, long time ago, yoga found its sources for the first time ever in the Indus — Saraswati civilisation. One among the oldest sacred texts, the Rig Veda composed within itself the word “Yoga”. After its foundation began its discovery. The Brahmans and Rishis refined yoga into its best forms and put it out in a written form in huge manuals called Upanishads, which consisted of about 200 scriptures. Vedas provided the Upanishads with the concept of sacrificing one’s ego by gaining knowledge, karma and wisdom.

Classical age:

Though, yoga found its sources in the pre — classical age, the contradiction between two ideas was also seen. This age showed a systematic arrangement of yoga defined by Patanjali’s Yoga — Sutras that gives meaning to the path of Raja yoga, also known as Classical Yoga. Patanjali facilitated the merging of yogic knowledge modifying it into an “eight-limbed” path. This path defined the steps towards the attainment of Samadhi or enlightenment still inspiring many styles in modern yoga.

Post — classical age:

In this age, yoga found its importance in physical aspects. Yogic experts and teachers started using it to rejuvenate the mind and cleanse it, precipitating out all those factors that cling to us and restrict the enlightenment of our body, physically. Tantra yoga was developed and advancement in the discoveries of body centred practices then formed Hatha Yoga, commonly known in the West.

Modern age:

The age clearly states that yoga started spreading widely, mostly conquering the West with its advantages. Many teachers, learners and yogic experts opened yoga institutions, schools and promoted yoga in all possible ways. In the 1800’s it was Swami Vivekananda who first took the initiative to convey to the people, the significance of yoga. In 1900’s, specifically in the 1920’s and 30’s, Hatha Yoga was promoted strongly. Teachers like Swami Sivananda and T. Krishnamacharya opened first Hatha Yoga Schools and Divine Life Society on the banks of the river Ganga.

Introduction and spread of Hatha Yoga went right up to the Hollywood when Indra Devi opened her first Hatha Yoga School there in 1947.

Since then, Yoga, a wide and never ending the study, largely beneficial, is promoted by more and more people and is still gaining a large number of followers. Its wide applications and advantages convince a large number of people to practice and preach it.

The History Yoga

Written by Bandana Kashyap